Take a look around your house. Are there piles of knickknacks? Drawers full of miscellaneous items? It may be time to declutter your home and finally get organized! Whether you want to declutter to sell your home or are just looking for ways to simplify your environment, there are plenty of helpful tips and techniques to achieve your goals.
For instance, decluttering apps can help you figure out where to start. Decluttering services can do the dirty work for you. No matter how you choose to go about it, decluttering your home rewards you with peace and a sense of control.
Here are 7 helpful tips you can use to declutter and organize your home.
Unless you live in a small studio, you can’t expect to declutter your home in just one day. It takes time to go through your belongings and determine which items are worth keeping. The larger your home, the longer it takes!
The best declutter strategy is to go room by room rather than trying to tackle your whole house at once. Dividing your home by each room (or even each area within a larger room) helps you be as thorough as possible. Do not move on to the next room until you are finished with the first.
Looking for easy ways to declutter? Consider using the “five bin strategy” to help you breeze through your home as efficiently as possible. You will need five bins, boxes or bags, each of which is assigned a different category. These are:
- Put away – use this bin for items that you plan to keep but are not in the right place.
- Fix – use this bin for items that need to be fixed or repaired.
- Throw away – use this bin for items that can go into the trash.
- Recycle – use this bin for items you no longer need that can be recycled.
- Donate – use this bin for items you no longer need that can be donated, such as clothes and toys.
As you declutter your home and move from room to room, be sure to bring these bins and place them in the center of the room. Once you are finished with one room, take some time to empty each bin as designated. So, if you have a dozen items in the “put away” bin, be sure to put all the items away before moving onto the next room.
If you need some assistance decluttering, there are a handful of apps that can help. Decluttering apps may help with one or more aspects of cleaning, organizing and decluttering to help you stay on top of your goals.
For example, Tody helps you schedule your cleaning tasks and notifies you when a task is overdue. It prioritizes the tasks based on how far overdue they are so that you can stay ahead of dirt, grime and clutter. The app even divides the tasks by room.
Our Home is another one of the best decluttering apps for homeowners and renters who need some helpful reminders every now and again. Like Tody, this app allows you to schedule your tasks and reminds you when it is time to complete them. However, it also keeps track of other household chores and errands, like after school activities, cooking and grocery shopping.
When you declutter your home, you will likely get rid of certain items you no longer need, whether throwing them away, donating them or selling them. It may be difficult to part with certain items that you think you may need in the future. One way to help yourself let go of unnecessary items is to give yourself permission to purchase new ones.
You may have a box of clothes you keep in storage “just in case.” Ask yourself, when was the last time you wore those clothes? Can you think of a time in the next 90 days in which you will wear them? If you cannot think of concrete examples, get rid of them and allow yourself to purchase new items only if necessary.
As you declutter and organize, you may begin to rethink your current setup. If you constantly find yourself searching for something, it may need a new home. A great declutter strategy to avoid more clutter in the future is to keep like items together.
For example, you may have extra space under your bathroom sink. This is a great place to store bathroom cleaning supplies, paper towels and toilet paper. Even miscellaneous items can be grouped together according to their likeness, like electrical cords, charging cables and extra batteries.
Easy ways to declutter include getting rid of duplicate items. Do you really need seven different types of wallets? Is it necessary to keep four half-empty perfume bottles? No one truly needs a cabinet full of reusable water bottles.
Declutter your home by going through each room and identifying duplicate items. If you have not used the item in the last year, it is probably not worth keeping!
If you want to declutter to sell your home quickly, you may need to hire some outside help. There are plenty of decluttering services you can use to help you organize your items before showing your home to potential buyers.
Decluttering services may also be required if your home is particularly cluttered. If you or a member of your household have hoarding tendencies, it may be necessary to hire professional cleaners and organizers to help you sort through your belongings.
For example, Handy is a decluttering service that connects you with professional organizers in your area. Simply enter your zip code and some information about the job, and Handy will match you with someone who can help.
For more in-depth decluttering services and organizational jobs, there’s 1-800-GOT-JUNK. This company offers full-service junk and clutter removal, which may be helpful if you have several heavy items or bulky pieces of furniture.